Written by C. B.   

My wife and I were very happy with the Affordable Care Act and the HealthCare.gov web site when we enrolled in May of 2014. HealthCare.gov was frustrating, however, in the end after enrolling we were presented with affordable plans from which we chose a Silver Plan which cost us 33.00 dollars a month after using the full rebate. We are on the low end of the middle class. The most we make as musicians and music teachers (college degreed) is 52,000.00 a year as a combined income with some years being 45,000.00. It is tough to survive on this as a family of four, we do it because most of what we have was purchased before having children. So we are good with assets and low on income. Hence, the Silver Plan was a good choice for us because it gave us the ability to go to a doctor with a good co-pay, and the deductable was 0.00 dollars. We were happy.

We began to recieve mail about renewing and re-enrolling at HealthCare.gov around November 15th, 2014. After all of the Thanksgiving family stress was over, it was time to sit down an do the HealthCare.gov thing again. And we were shocked to see that the same Silver Plan was 178.00 dollars (almost 6 times the previous premium we were paying 6 months ago) a month with deductables of upwards to 2,000.00 dollars with larger copay. The deductable is the part that shocked us. Why should we bother paying 178.00 a month for a deductable that we may never reach?

So we pursued a Bronze Plan which was pure junk. It presented a 48.00 premium after the rebate but the deductable was a shocking amount of 9,000.00 dollars with very little to offer in terms of prescription assistance (next to nothing). Again, why bother paying 48.00 dollars a month for a deductable of 9,000.00 because after 9,000.00 is spent from us, and this would mean credit cards because we don't have 9,000.00 in savings, we would be in total economic despair.

The big question is how the premium on the Silver Plan of 2014 went from 33.00 a month to 178.00 dollars a month. What caused such inflation? What happened to cause this plan to become unaffordable to us in a matter of months?

So, my wife and I came the conclusion that we are opting out. We are choosing to pay the 325.00 dollar a person fee for opting out.